5 Questions To Help You Find the Right Balance for Social Posting

Is more better than less? According to an article written by Jesse Torres for Entrepreneur, it is. He says, “The more times social-media content is seen or heard, the greater the odds of converting a person into a customer.”[1] However, Brett Relander writes in the same magazine, “... some brands fall into the trap of actually driving away their customers by trying to keep them too close through social media engagement.”[2] How do you know how much social media posting is too much?

Finding balance begins by asking the following questions:

1. Am I posting without considering the value of the post for my followers?

2. Do I understand the expectations of each platform’s users?

Each social media platform has a unique personality shaped by the combination of the platform and its users. Before you begin posting content, you need to understand follower’s expectations within that platform.

Instagram is also visually based. It reaches a younger market demographic. 41% of its members are between 16 and 24. Its audience is 51% male and 49% female. Smart phone and tablet access is high, with 47% of members using smartphones and 53% using tablets.[4]

Facebook is used by both genders equally, with 78% of its membership accessing their accounts with mobile devices. Tools such as ‘Facebook Audience Insights’ will help you identify whether you’ll find your target market on that platform.[5] Facebook users expect access to “content, events or sales after ‘liking’ a company, while 58% also expect to receive discounts or promotions. Additionally 47% expect to see updates about the company, person or organization they ‘liked’ in their newsfeed, which bodes well for brands as they work to have their content always show up for their followers.”[6]

LinkedIn is business oriented. Its members expect information that supports career development and/or business success.

Twitter is sound-byte oriented. Members expect you to send a few focused messages—short, to the point, yet useful—unless they are participating in an event and using Twitter to ‘chat’ about it.

Recognizing these differences enables to you to post content that’s more likely to be user-relevant.

3. Can I tailor my posts to the social media platform?

Copying content from one platform to another doesn’t work. While the posts may be welcomed by one platform’s audience, they could be seen as spammy by another.

There’s no reason (except lack of time) you can’t be present on all the platforms. However, you need to tweak the content to fit the expectations of your audience. If this isn’t possible, then it’s likely you’ll be posting too much for one platform, while on another, you might have the mix just right.

4. What posting schedule can I maintain?

You may have heard it’s important to post three times a day. However, consider whether you’ll be able to maintain a level of high quality, follower-relevant content. It’s far better to post once a week, than to send out low-quality posts.

Avoid an irregular posting schedule as well. If you can only produce one high-quality post a week, consider that enough. Followers are willing to wait for engagement when they know it’s going to be worth their time. That one day you post weak content three times could be the one when followers drop you.

5. Am I listening?

Nothing is more important. So often businesses push content at their audience they think the audience needs to hear. It just doesn’t work that way. Mike Lieberman says, “Listen to what people are talking about before you jump into the conversation. Notice the frequency with which they're looking for info. They might behave differently from social site to social site, even in the same industry and persona groups.”[7]

The key takeaway is this. If you are listening and consistently posting content that fits your audience, anxiety about over-posting fades and confidence grows. If you are interested in acquiring customers through social media download our eBook: How to Acquire Customers with Social Media below.